Yosemite, USA

19 Aug 2014 (Sat)

Lodging: Comfort Inn Yosemite Area, Oakhurst



4 of 7, fortnight USA trip
Arizona ✈ Las Vegas ✈ Mammoth Lakes ✈ Yosemite ✈ San Francisco ✈ Coastal California ✈ Los Angeles

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Tioga Road

I once thought this place has got something to do with Japanese, as it sounds pretty Japanese in the first place.

Yosemite, a national park in Northern California, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, owing to its wondrous nature beauty, spreading across over 3,000 km² - it's darn huge.

Tioga Lake

Tuolumne Meadows

Tenaya Lake

Yosemite Valley

Mammoth Lakes, USA

19 Aug 2014 (Sat)

Lodging: Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa



3 of 7, fortnight USA trip
Arizona ✈ Las Vegas ✈ Mammoth Lakes ✈ Yosemite ✈ San Francisco ✈ Coastal California ✈ Los Angeles

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Room 139, Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa

We've left Death Valley, ahead of us is a foresty town - Mammoth Lakes.

Make sure you fill your car with petrol or get enough food and water supply before you get to a less populous place like Mammoth Lakes or Yosemite. There's either limited sources of the supply you need or a very expensive one.

We didn't intend to visit Mammoth Lakes, it's just our lodging for our visit to Yosemite. We picked this resort out of the relative affordability because the location is far from Yosemite.

It seemed like we underestimated the distance and thought we could visit the east side of the Yosemite National Park, get back to Mammoth Lakes, and continue on the second day towards the west side. The chances are, we were only able to get back to the resort after late midnight. Thus, we decided to look around Mammoth Lakes and have a full Yosemite expedition the next day instead.

Twin Lakes

Notice how two lakes are connected thru a narrow channel

Lake Mary

People are camping at the lake when it was so shivering cold...

Horseshoe Lake

One of the most dispirited corners of the world I've seen...

Twin Falls

Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa

Sky turned dark pretty fast, thank goodness we didn't stick to our initial plan of visiting Yosemite and come back here. It was bone-chilling with the wind out there, it's neither warm indoor.

We got back to the resort and guess what, we met another group of GRDPs from Singapore who started their fortnight-long trip southwards from San Francisco while we're going in the opposite direction northwards.

Tiny little world, that we're even staying in the same resort without any of us knowing, it reminded me of bumping into a friend on a random street in Amsterdam 2 years ago.

Death Valley, USA

19 Aug 2014 (Sat)

2.5 of 7, fortnight USA trip
Arizona ✈ Las Vegas ✈ Mammoth Lakes ✈ Yosemite ✈ San Francisco ✈ Coastal California ✈ Los Angeles

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Death Valley

If you noticed, Death Valley doesn't appear in any of the above travel itinerary. It's a route that we deliberately passed by to get us to Mammoth Lakes. I suggested this route instead of those shorter ones selected by Google, because at least the scenery won't be boring for us who's gonna drive for a number of hours.

As I don't have a lot of photos for Death Valley, and it's not really even a pre-planned destination, I included the photos into the same album as Mammoth Lakes, USA.

You can't miss the huge landmark of "Death Valley National Park: Homeland of Timbisha Shoshone". I was so excited and I climbed up there and jumped down as I intended to leave the huge sign. Serving me right for underestimating the gravitational pull there, I kind of injured my right heel, totally.

Coyote

We spotted a few coyotes along the way.
They looked skinny and seemed like starving... So we had to be careful they don't see us as food.

By the way, it reminded me of the coyote in the Looney Tunes cartoon Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner I watched when I was a kid.

The name of this place repeatedly suggested us to get out of here. We really didn't want to get trapped here because it's very warm and dry there. Any malfunction in the car engine or system will be the hugest decennial disaster.

Crowley Lake (as seen from U.S. Route 395)

Ya so obviously we have gotten ourselves out of Death Valley, as there's no blue thing there.

Again, we didn't take as many photos or visit as many corners of Death Valley as we could, though we did see some beautiful dunes.

There are certainly more than these in Death Valley.
For example, the famous sailing stones, a geological phenomenon where rocks move by themselves without human or animal intervention, damn cool right.

Santa Monica, USA

21 Aug 2013 (Wed)

Bidding farewell to Oklahoma City, and maybe even US, we soon will be back in Singapore in no time.

As there's no direct flight from Oklahoma City to Singapore, the flight route was scheduled as Oklahoma City ✈ Los Angeles ✈ Singapore, and guess what, the stopover at Los Angeles was 7-hour long!
Are we gonna be good boys and girl stoning at the airport for the upcoming flight? I don't think so... :)

Los Angeles International Airport

Our flight details
21 Aug 2013 (Wed)
Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) - Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Terminal 4
Flight No: AA 3692
7:25AM ­- 8:20AM

21 Aug 2013 (Wed)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Terminal B - Tokyo Narita Airport
Flight No: SQ 11
3:45PM ­- 7:15PM (22 Aug)
Tokyo Narita Airport - Changi Airport Terminal 3
Flight No: SQ 11
8:50PM ­- 2:55AM (23 Aug)

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Things then went pretty crazy - the airport staff told us that there's no luggage deposit at the airport, if we were to get out of the airport, our luggage goes with us. Yes, it's the full load of luggage we're bringing back to Singapore.

And we did, we called for a cab to bring us to a beatiful beach in Santa Monica, a beachfront city.

Renting bicycles is a good reason and excuse for us to deposit our luggage at the bicycle shop, we were then able to cycle along the beach without having an eye on our bulky luggage. Two birds with one stone! WHY WE SO SMART?! Lol~~

The weather was great, it's not the warmth that you would typically feel under the sun of the beach (LOL) at noon.

Perhaps throughout these years, nothing could be merrier than cycling by the beach with beautiful blue sea, blue sky and babes.

Cycling makes me recall my exchange days in Sweden, when I cycled for months under right-hand traffic, until I learnt to cycle hands free. Guess what, Boon Kiat and Yi Jie did their exchange in Sweden as well! XD

I mean, how freaking awesome can it be if I were staying in one of these beach houses...

Rusty's Surf Ranch

We had lunch at one of the restaurants along the pier, hoping to dig in their really fresh catches.

Rusty's Surf Ranch
256 Santa Monica Pier

We managed to get back to the airport in time, and bade out last goodbye to America, at least for this year.

Not just Santa Monica, we'll miss the fortnight we spent in the US. It's our first time stepping onto this continent and country.

Thank God that because this was a partial business trip, being a Malaysian passport holder I was still able to get my visa in a bit upon interview, as US visa approval is heard to be an incommodious hassle for those visa waiver program exempted, I wonder if they see everyone as a potential terrorist.

Fish 'n' Chips @ $11.95
BBQ Chicken Breast @ $11.95
Chef Avelar's Marinated Skirt Steak @ $19.95


Singapore Airlines SQ11 Airbus A380-800

Bye USA. Hi Singapore.

For more photos, please check out my photo album Santa Monica, USA on Facebook.